Hundreds of Islanders have had their say on all things Isle of Wight transport – with a key plan now set to take a step forward.
The Island Transport Plan 4 (ITP 4) represents a ‘major shift’ in approach, with greater focus on encouraging more cycling, walking and public transport and less car use.
It will now move to the next stage after a public consultation and last week’s vote by County Hall’s economy, regeneration, transport and infrastructure committee (ERTIC) to recommend the final draft of ITP 4 to full council.
Though carried, ITP 4 split the panel with 6 councillors in favour and 3 against.
Liberal Democrat ERTIC member Cllr Nick Stuart described the draft as a “comprehensive document” and praised the council for an “excellent consultation exercise”, pulling in an “enormous” amount of thought from the general public.
However, Conservative Cllr Ed Blake, who voted against the plan, said at present the document is not “worth the paper it is written on” and fails to address how the Island’s transport situation will be corrected.
The plan says:
“The council will maximise every opportunity to work in partnership with bus, rail and ferry operators, sustainable transport organisations, the NHS, public sector, private sector and voluntary and charitable organisations, to encourage and help people switch from cars to cycling, walking and public transport.”
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ITP 4’s aims include a transport network producing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, people and goods being able to travel sustainably and efficiently to assist local economic growth, affordability, accessibility and safety.
The public consultation on the plan received 458 responses, with overall feedback showing ‘overwhelming support’ for it, according to a council report.
Introducing the final draft, Stewart Chandler, transport strategy manager at the Isle of Wight Council, said:
“We moved the priorities around slightly given the original draft was put together in 2022 when the impacts of the pandemic and climate change was at the front of our priorities.
“That’s now shifted with the climate impact still set out within the document but Covid-19, where travel arrangements have pretty much returned back to where they were pre-pandemic…that’s less of a priority.”
He added economic development and growth had become a greater priority within the plan.
Cllr Chris Jarman, of the Empowering Islanders, was another opponent who, while acknowledging the work which had gone into the plan, said it was missing a “simple Gantt chart and a list of deliverables” that it achieves.
A Gantt chart shows the stages of a piece of work.
Independent councillor David Adams said IPT 4 seems a “real demonisation of the motorists” and that the survey responses were not representative of the Island.
ERTIC’s Alliance chair Julie Jones-Evans labelled the plan as “very good”.
“There’s no stone that hasn’t been unturned here…in preparing this document,” she added.
ITP4 says:
“The ITP…represents a major shift in approach and emphasis, with an increased focus on policies which avoid the need for travel, support modal shift away from motorised vehicles and manage demand for road space, rather than just supplying the extra capacity to meet increased demand of car travel.”
Full council will next meet on 25th February.
The plan is great in theory, but totally unrealistic in practice.
As to consultation, whom did they consult. People who were likely to favour their green views no doubt?
The truth is on the Island public transport is not sufficient to the needs of the public. There are too many remote areas who may see a bus once an hour if they are lucky, or not at all! We have no trains for the majority of the Island and cars are the only way the old and disabled can safely get around.
Environmentalist goals are great in principle, but on the Island where we have old and infirm people as the majority of the population, these goals are just not realistic.
Could be the start of the Draconian 15 minute cities.
Seems like they’re practicing for it with all these main roads closed!
Where is the enormous response from Islanders? 450 responses from a population well over one hundred thousand people is not a good description.
With an Island population of roughly 78,500 working age people (55-57% of the total Island population), 458 people responding equates to roughly 0.5% of working age Islanders, how could that possibly be classed as an enormous response?
Last count including the retired of adults was 121,000.
Bit like the last election a low turn out,
people have had enough.
Enough is Enough
Cycling and buses will not provide a solution for the many older and less able persons.
Labour net zero plan, seems to refer to there rapid destruction of employment prospects. With businesses closing at record pace.
Universal basic income is what is on the cards.
Less car use! Easy dig up all the roads. Cheap repairs so one frost pot holes the roads to look like the Ukraine front line.
“Cheap repairs so one frost pot holes the roads to look like the Ukraine front line”
looking at the current state of the roads,.. it seems IR have already done that
Surely getting about by horse would be a clean, net zero form of transport?
Unless you count the ‘waste’ they can produce lol
Nothing wrong with horse sh*t.
Ummm i would have a look at how our countries streets were before the automobile came along, horse manure covered the roads, the places stunk, people would die from it, horses dead all over the roads, let’s not bring that back ay!
“There’s no stone that hasn’t been unturned”
What ???
a tripple negative !!!
WTF is that supposed to mean
( & these poeple have been trusted to act on our behalf. >:O )
Most people are too lazy to get on their bikes, fair enough, it’s unrealistic and impractical if you have to ferry children around to get to school etc.
On the other hand keep building houses and it will be quicker to get where you need to by bike as the road infrastructure on the island won’t be able to cope with the number of cars using it. If you’ve ever driven in Portsmouth you will know what this is like.
“There’s no stone that hasn’t been unturned”
What ???
a tripple negative !!!
WTF is that supposed to mean
( & these poeple have been trusted to act on our behalf. >:O )
Don’t make me laugh the island still cannot
STOP NUMPTIES SPEEDING
STOP VEHICLES PARKING ON PAVEMENTS AND DOUBLE YELLOW LINES.
Look at Regent Street in Shanklin a blue Ford lives on
the pavement outside the takeaways nr Boots.
Not to mention the Numpty G4 Vehicle that parks on
ZIG ZAGS, yes ZIG ZAGS outside the Nationwide Building
Society.
The only way this dream plan can work is the island needs
speed cameras islandwide and have to increase parking
fees for petrol and diesel vehicles.
Also just like many places on the island start charging
higher fees for larger vehicles.
Until then, it’s all a dream.
I don’t see what benefit having higher parking fees for petrol/diesel cars will achieve. A car is a car whether it’s the above or electric and your not going to get more electric cars here until there’s infrastructure and that’s a joke too.
We also need a council and councillors with some backbone!
It’s all bollocks all about taxing the shit out car ownership..
It is to get dirty vehicles off the road and make
places cleaner and healthier.
Think of our grandchildrens futures.
What a load of tripe. So we stop driving our cars whilst the people in charge fly everywhere and have convoys for themselves, I have clients who have a lot of money and preach to everyone about electric cars and ‘saving the planet’ whilst they holiday 6 times a year, take their children around the world, travel to London for work every week and have a house that costs 4 times mine does to heat. It’s not about saving anyone it’s all about control!!
I think you’ll find the G4 vehicle is collecting/delivering cash from Nationwide, only a true numpty would suggest he parks in the carpark (at an increased cost cos his vans big & diesel) and walks thru the town with bags of cash under his arm !!
As if we are not paying out enough you want to add more, your names not Rachel is it.
More cyclists? No thanks. Too many of them as it is.
There are no decent cycle lanes on the island
we are a long way away from being like Holland.
ITP 4’s aims include a transport network producing net-zero greenhouse gas emissions,…Oh fuckoff with this net zero made up scam name.
Who voted this in the green party, a lot of people on this island have no option but to use their car, with such a large elderly population a lot of people can’t walk very far and bus stops are mostly on main roads.